Maria Contel

Maria Contel was a postdoctoral fellow at the Australian National University (1997-99) and at the University of Utrecht (1999-2000). She was a senior researcher (Ramón y Cajal Fellow, the most prestigious fellowship for young investigators in Spain) at the University of Zaragoza before starting as an assistant professor (inorganic chemistry) at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center in September 2006. She became an associate professor in 2011, was made a Tow Professor in 2015 and in August 2016 she became a full Professor. Her research interests lie in the field of inorganic/organometallic chemistry and, more specifically, medicinal chemistry and homogeneous catalysis (green chemistry). She is currently teaching Organic Chemistry and Advanced Inorganic Chemistry courses at Brooklyn College and at the Graduate Center.

Education:

Areas of Expertise:

Contel is a synthetic inorganic/organometallic chemist. Her subfields are medicinal chemistry and homogenous catalysis. She synthesizes new gold compounds with potential applications as: a) anticancer and antimicrobial drugs, and b) recoverable homogenous catalysts. She focuses on the study of reaction mechanisms by spectroscopic NMR techniques in order to rationally design more efficient and less toxic catalysts and drugs. She is funded by the National Institutes of Health (2013-17).

Awards, Honors and Fellowships

National Cancer Institute: 1R13CA200223-01A1. NIH Support for Conferences and Scientific Meetings. "1st International Symposium on Clinical and Experimental Metallodrugs in Medicine: Cancer Chemotherapy". November 2015- May 2106. (Grants and Fellowships) 2015

CUNY-Advanced Science Research Center (SEED grants), for "Improving selectivity and delivery of potential organometallic-based cancer chemotherapeutics by using peptide- and carbohydrate- amphiphiles as mobile nanocarriers." $10,000; June 2015-May 2016. (Grants and Fellowships) 2015